


Tracery

by torturingtaylor (itzaimster)



Series: Saw Trilogy [1]
Category: Hanson, Saw (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Needles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-27
Updated: 2013-12-27
Packaged: 2018-01-06 07:04:16
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1103885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itzaimster/pseuds/torturingtaylor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jigsaw has a game for Zac.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tracery

He could feel his fingers tingling as he slowly came to. His head was pounding and his eyes felt welded shut.  
He could feel the light scorching his retinas through his eyelids before they even opened. When they did finally open, he couldn’t see anything but white.  
There was static to his right, and when his eyes turned in that direction he barely made out a grey blur.  
“Hello Zachary.”  
Blinking furiously it didn’t take long for him to realise he couldn’t move. He closed his eyes to concentrate on waking up, and when he opened them again he could see a little clearer.  
To the right was an old television set and VCR, set up on a slim metal stand. On the screen was a familiar blue face.  
“I want to play a game.”  
Zac’s eyes widened and he immediately tried to sit up. A piece of strapping around his chest held him firm, and he soon saw the mechanics surrounding his stagnant arms.  
Two metal shafts ran down the length of the arms of the chair he was tied to. Periodically inserted through holes in the plates were a variety of syringes – each with slightly different looking contents. Some were different colours, some were different doses.  
The way the needles were set meant that if Zac moved his arms, he would certainly be jabbed.  
“The needles you see each contain a concentrated dosage of some of the world’s most effective, painful and incurable diseases,” the puppet on the television drew Zac’s eyes again, “including but not limited to AIDS, the Black Death, leprosy and cholera.”  
“Why?” Zac choked out, wondering if there was even anyone watching or if it were simply a video playing from the VCR.  
“You will need to overcome your fear of these in order to save the life of your wife.”  
“What?” Zac gasped, a moment before a whirring noise drew his attention to the front of the room.  
A moment later the wall appeared to move aside revealing a glass window. Behind it Kate was on her knees, a chain around her throat.  
She was wearing the gown she’d worn to bed that night, and Zac soon realised he was still in his own pyjamas.  
“The chain around your wife’s throat is connected to a lever system on the outside of her room,” the puppet explained, though Zac could see quite clearly, “between her throat and the spool lies two parallel blades, capable of slicing something three times her size in two.”  
“Please let her go,” Zac was trying not to panic and failing.  
He could tell that Kate was already in a panic, though he wasn’t sure if she could hear anything from his side of the glass.  
“The chain will decrease in length in ten second increments. Once it begins you will have precisely sixty seconds to free her.”  
Careful to keep his arms frozen, Zac frantically searched the room for how he was supposed to help her. The tiled room was bare aside from the chair he was in and the television stand.  
“To your left there are two buttons on the wall,” the puppet continued, Zac’s eyes shooting right to them, “a green and a red. In order to stop the chain, you must hit the red button. In order to hit the red button you must first free yourself from the chair.”  
“This is impossible,” Zac tried to reason, perhaps to no one, “my arms will be cut to shreds, I won’t be able to-“  
“Your time starts now.”  
“WAIT!” Zac yelled, hearing a second motor whir from out of sight.  
Kate’s scream was silent as the chain suddenly wrenched her closer to the steel blades. Zac felt his heart desperately race as he recognised the realisation in her eyes. She knew what was happening now.  
His eyes darted to the buttons, knowing what he had to do. But barely able to concentrate on anything but the terrified look on his wife’s face he couldn’t figure out a way to do it without killing himself in the process.  
Even if it were going to be a potentially slow and agonizing death.  
Before he knew it another ten seconds was up and Kate was once again wrenched to the left.  
“Okay, okay…” Zac closed his eyes for a moment to breathe.  
When he opened them again he focused solely on his arms. The needle points were already grazing the hairs on his skin and he couldn’t be sure he hadn’t already been nicked when he’d first woken up. It was monumentally obvious that in order to free Kate he’d have to pull his arms free from the needle-laden plates, and as he heard the mechanics moving a third time he knew his time was almost halfway up.  
He focused on Kate again. She was frantically trying to pull the chain from her throat, but Zac could see the large padlock and knew it was fruitless.  
He was her only hope.  
Knowing that counting down from ten was a bad idea, he limited himself to three before pulling back. When he felt the tear in his skin he knew his scream must have rivalled Kate’s, but he held himself back from looking in her direction again while he concentrated on working himself free.  
He’d pulled his left arm halfway out when he had to stop to catch his breath. He could already feel the blood trickling down, and absently caught sight of it pooling on the floor out the corner of his eye. Trying to ignore it he pulled back again, stopping himself when he felt the jab of the needles touching his inner wrist.  
If he pulled back all the way in order to free his arm, there was every chance he could bleed out. He was already losing a lot of blood, though the trails were needle-thin at least.  
Another ten seconds was up and he looked up in time to see Kate dragged forward again. With only thirty seconds to go her neck was barely two feet from the blades already.  
“Come on,” Zac groaned to himself, trying to work himself up enough to finish it.  
Without bothering to count down, he suddenly wrenched his left arm free. Not stopping to check if his veins were still intact he reached across to his right arm to see if he could push the needles back to let the arm through easier. He managed to push back the few at the front, but he knew he was going to have to brave the rest of them.  
Knowing he would already be infected in his left arm anyway, it was only the pain he had to deal with.  
The mechanics moved again. With only two movements left Zac forced his right arm out, another yell escaping him and twice as much blood now covering the floor.  
Releasing the leather strap on his chest was hard with bloody fingers slipping all over, but he had it off before the next ten seconds were up.  
He bolted to his feet and ran to hit the button. But when his hand hit the smooth surface it slid straight off.  
“NO!” Zac yelled, trying to wipe his hands on his shirt as he heard the mechanics moving again.  
He was losing strength by the second and as soon as he wiped the blood more appeared on his hands as it trailed down his arms. He tried three times before finally head-butting it and hearing the motor on the other side of the wall slow to silence.  
“KATE?!” he yelled, stepping in front of the window and putting a bloodied hand on the glass.  
He was relieved to see her laying on the floor – crying – the chain having released when the motor stalled and letting her fall back.  
“Kate?!”  
He grunted when he remembered she couldn’t hear him and looked around the room again. The television showed nothing but static, the video having ended when the instructions had. He gulped a little at the trail of blood he was leaving and momentarily wondered if he had the strength left to do what he had to.  
He stepped over to the television and pulled the wires from the back before lifting it into his arms. He took it back to the window, and aiming to the right – away from Kate – he threw the set through the glass. It shattered, falling to the floor in front of him.  
“Kate?!” he knew he now had her attention.  
“Zac?” she looked up in bewilderment as he climbed into the room.  
He fell to his knees and pulled her into his arms, letting her cry into his shoulder.  
“It’s okay,” he lay a kiss on her temple, “we’re okay. We’ll be okay.”  
“Where are we?” she managed to choke out, “how do we get out?!”  
“I don’t know,” Zac replied honestly, looking around her room to make sure he wasn’t missing a door.  
For the first time he noticed the video cameras in the top corners, focused right on them. A shiver trailed down his spine as he wondered who was watching and what they might have planned next.  
“There’s a key,” Kate let him go long enough to indicate the other side of the room, “I couldn’t reach it.”  
Zac soon lay eyes on it and cast her aside in order to fetch it. When he brought it back he was relieved when it fit the padlock on the chain.  
“Come on,” he took her hand the moment he had it off.  
“What are you doing?” Kate followed regardless, eyeing him as he stepped over to the nearest wall and began leaving bloodied handprints all over the white paint.  
“There’s gotta be a door here somewhere,” Zac insisted, “we just need to find it.”  
Kate took the hint and let go of his hand so she could help him search. They weren’t looking for long when they heard a familiar whir.  
“Zac, that’s…”  
“I know,” Zac insisted as he looked toward the pulley, “I saw everything.”  
He held his wife back defensively as the chain slowly snaked toward the blades in the wall, soon disappearing through the small gap. Once it was gone a sliver of light appeared to the left.  
“The wall’s coming apart,” Kate realised, “think it’s a door?”  
Zac was cautious about approaching it, but per Kate’s prediction the wall soon slid aside to reveal an outer hallway.  
Waiting to make sure the blades wouldn’t move, Zac took Kate’s hand again and led her toward the door. After a quick check to make sure the hallway was deserted – clear aside from more video cameras – Zac pulled Kate outside and began to rush her down the hall.  
“Zac are you okay?” Kate asked, noticing he seemed to be having trouble focusing.  
“I’ll be fine,” Zac insisted, “let’s just find a way out of here first.”  
At the end of the hall was a door that looked like a fire escape. Zac pushed through and they both cringed as they hit sudden daylight.  
They’d emerged into a bitumen parking lot, and Zac’s car was parked three bays away.  
“Where the heck are we?” Kate was trying not to panic, “and what happened to our kids?!”  
“There’s no one here,” Zac began over to the car, “let’s just… find a hospital, and report it to the cops as soon as we can.”  
He made it to the car but barely. Kate left him to lean on the hood as she searched for the keys, soon finding them on the back tyre.  
“Get in the back,” she insisted, “you can’t drive. Find something to cover your arms.”  
Zac only groaned in response, too weak already to fight back. Kate opened the back door in time for him to suddenly fall to his hands and knees and vomit onto the bitumen.  
“Zac come on!” she took him by the shoulder and dragged him back to his feet.  
She managed to get him into the back seat, finding a baby towel left on the floor and wrapping it around his left arm which was bleeding the most. Zac collapsed down onto the seat as she closed the door and hurriedly got into the front.  
She turned on the GPS and let it trace them. It soon pinned them to an outer Tulsa district.  
“Hang on baby,” she turned back, hoping against hope that Zac would stay conscious, “I’m gonna get you to a hospital as soon as I can.”  
She started the car and pulled out, knowing vaguely which direction to go. Without looking back she floored it onto the main road and followed the GPS to what it showed was the nearest medical centre.


End file.
